Systems and methods are provided for conducting the entire development process of new products, such as clothing or fashion designs, from conception through production in a virtual world. The virtual world is a multi-user three-dimensional persistent interactive graphical environment in which a plurality of avatars can interact as if interacting in the physical world to develop a new product. The avatars represent actual individuals that are contributors to the product development process. Each avatar can communicate with other avatars, can interact with and modify the graphical environment and can manipulate three-dimensional objects within the graphical environment for purposes of demonstration, explanation or review. Databases containing the necessary elements for product design are provided and are accessible by the avatars within the graphical environment.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method for product development, the method comprising: establishing a multi-user three-dimensional persistent interactive graphical environment; instantiating a plurality of avatars within the graphical environment, each avatar corresponding to and controlled by a real world individual involved in a commercial product development process and each avatar capable of interacting with other avatars within the graphical environment and of interacting with the graphical environment; using interactions among the avatars and interactions between given avatars and the graphical environment to develop a new product specification sheet comprising a new product specification for a new commercial product in the commercial product development process; submitting the new product specification sheet to a real world production facility for creation of a physical embodiment of the new product specification; and manufacturing the physical embodiment of the developed new commercial product in the real world using the submitted new product specification.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of establishing the graphical environment further comprises establishing functional interfaces within the graphical environment for interaction between the graphical environment and each one of the plurality of avatars.
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the functional interfaces comprise manipulatable three-dimensional objects.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of instantiating the plurality of avatars further comprises: identifying product development functions associated with each one of the plurality of avatars; and granting functionalities within the graphical environment to each avatar in accordance with the identified product development function associated with that avatar.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the granted functionalities comprise a power to access objects within the graphical environment or a power to manipulate objects within the graphical environment.
6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the identified functionalities comprise designer, product developer, graphic artist, manager, quality control personnel, engineer, manufacturer, customer, supervisor, accountant, attorney, investor or director.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the new product specification comprises a combination of elements forming a manipulatable three-dimensional object in the graphical environment.
8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the step of creating the new product specification further comprises: identifying existing elements within the graphical environment; importing additional elements into the graphical environment from one or more databases accessible from within the graphical environment; and specifying the combination of the existing elements and the additional elements.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein developing the new product specification further comprises manipulating a previously created product specification to create the new product specification.
10. The method of claim 1 , wherein developing the new product specification further comprises: creating a plurality of new product specifications; assigning a unique alpha-numeric designation to each new product specification; and storing the new product specifications in a database accessible by all avatars within the graphical environment.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of using the interactions to develop a new commercial product further comprises using one or more avatars to conduct a quality control review of a proposed new product specification for compliance with a plurality of pre-determined product parameters by interacting in the graphical environment with a manipulatable three-dimensional object embodying the new product specification.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of using the interactions to develop a new commercial product further comprises: creating the new product specification sheet within the graphical environment comprising the new product specification listing a combination of elements and manufacturing information sufficient to produce the new commercial product; and validating the new product specification sheet within the graphical environment for compliance with the new product specification.
13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising integrating representations of real world devices comprising electronic data exchange capabilities and physically located external to the graphical environment into the graphical environment such that avatars can utilize or interact with these device representations within the graphical environment while users interact with the real world devices in the real world.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the real world devices comprise cellular telephones, personal digital assistants, personal computers, haptic devices, force feedback devices, audio equipment, visual equipment or combinations thereof.
15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: identifying a point of focus associated with one of the plurality of avatars, the point of focus disposed within the graphical environment; determining a current attention of the avatar based on the identified point of focus; and using the current attention to communicate with the avatar.
16. A method for product development, the method comprising: establishing a multi-user three-dimensional persistent interactive graphical environment; instantiating a plurality of avatars within the graphical environment, each avatar corresponding to and controlled by a real world individual involved in a commercial product development process and each avatar capable of interacting with other avatars within the graphical environment and of interacting with the graphical environment; using the avatars within the graphical environment in the commercial product development process, the commercial product development process comprising at least one of creating a new product specification, conducting a quality control review of the new product specification for compliance with a plurality of pre-determined product parameters, creating a new product specification sheet comprising the new product specification and manufacturing information sufficient to produce the new commercial product, validating the new product specification sheet for compliance with the new product specification, submitting the validated new product specification sheet to a real world production facility for creation of a physical embodiment of the new product specification, validating the sample against the new product specification and declaring an approval sample from validated sample; and manufacturing a new commercial product comprising the physical embodiment of the new product specification in the real world using the submitted validated new product specification.
17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising using a database accessible from within the graphical environment in the product development process, the database comprising a plurality of elements utilized in each new product specification, previously developed product specifications, industry-specific information, product line information, manufacturing information, quality control standards, avatar profile information, product development logs, marketing information, sales information, accounting information, legal information, approval logs, comments logs, vendor information or customer information.
18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising using a plurality of pre-defined scripts, each pre-defined script embodying interaction patterns for avatars involved in the product development process of a particular product.
19. A computer-readable storage medium containing a computer-readable code that when read by a computer causes the computer to perform a method for product development, the method comprising: establishing a multi-user three-dimensional persistent interactive graphical environment; instantiating a plurality of avatars within the graphical environment, each avatar corresponding to and controlled by a real world individual involved in a commercial product development process and each avatar capable of interacting with other avatars within the graphical environment and of interacting with the graphical environment; using interactions among the avatars and interactions between given avatars and the graphical environment to develop a new product specification sheet comprising a new product specification for a new commercial product in the commercial product development process; submitting the new product specification sheet to a real world production facility for creation of a physical embodiment of the new product specification; and manufacturing the physical embodiment of the developed new commercial product in the real world using the submitted new product specification.
20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19 , wherein the new product development process further comprises at least one of creating the new product specification, conducting a quality control review of the new product specification for compliance with a plurality of pre-determined product parameters, creating the new product specification sheet comprising manufacturing information sufficient to produce the new product, validating the new product specification sheet for compliance with the new product specification, submitting the validated new product specification sheet to a real world production facility for creation of a sample embodying the new product specification, validating the sample against the new product specification and declaring an approval sample from validated sample.
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October 19, 2007
November 4, 2014
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